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Aug 21, 2013, 19:46 PM
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Daniel Margolis
As anyone who has ever launched a product knows, the hardest variable to contend with is whether or not anyone will buy it. You can make the best widget in the world, but you can’t read people’s minds to learn if it’s something they actually need and will part with cash to acquire. Without sales, any company will tank fast. This is where market research comes in, and likely copious amounts of it. But it can be difficult for a small- to medium-sized business to muster the resour ...
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Aug 20, 2013, 19:53 PM
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Lamar Whitman
Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC) took part in a TechVoice event on August 19 in Charlotte, NC, co-sponsored by CompTIA, the North Carolina Technology Association and the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce. During the hour-long session, McHenry fielded questions from moderators Melanie Chernoff, public policy manager at Red Hat, Inc., and Ron Culler, CTO at Secure Designs, Inc. The topics ranged from cybersecurity and data breach to tax reform, and McHenry showed a strong commitment to and understan ...
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Aug 20, 2013, 19:34 PM
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Lamar Whitman
CompTIA recently submitted testimony to the Senate Small Business Committee for a roundtable discussion on the effects of tax reform on small businesses. The event featured an open discussion on tax reform by representatives of the small business community. The Senate Finance Committee will ultimately consider the record of this event as part of its tax reform deliberations. CompTIA’s testimony called for tax code simplification; reduction of tax burden on SMB IT firms; growth and innovati ...
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Aug 20, 2013, 17:00 PM
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Randi Parker
All is quiet here in D.C., with Congress home for its annual summer recess. While members of Congress are back in their districts, they are continuing to hear and talk to their electorates. As in years past, the August recess is a great time for constituents to bend their representatives’ ears on key issues. This year it is immigration reform. TechVoice members and TECNA alliance partners have been playing an enormous role in this process by pounding the pavement and meeting with their loc ...
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Aug 14, 2013, 21:00 PM
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Janet Pinkerton
Heather Jones' tells us about her path to her dream job as a quality assurance (QA) analyst for Riot Games, the Santa Monica, California-based publisher of "League of Legends," a multi-player online battle arena video game.
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Aug 14, 2013, 17:04 PM
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Emily Matzelle
Jeremy Conley has a secret. As head of marketing for Avagio, specialists and champions in high quality ICT service and practices with many small- and medium-sized businesses across the south and west of England, he knows the value of promoting his firm’s CompTIA Accredit UK Trustmark+. And, he’s willing to share how Avagio pursued and acquired this honorable designation. The Accredit UK Trustmark+ (AUK) is a proven, strong, audited industry credential and the premier benchmark for IC ...
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Aug 13, 2013, 22:01 PM
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Emily Matzelle
What if protecting your business’s confidential data and information was as easy as hiring a bodyguard? Who would you hire? What questions would you ask your candidates to be sure that this person has your company’s best interests at heart and the ethical values to back them up? Safeguarding private information is a matter that cannot be taken lightly in this digital age. That’s why CompTIA created the CompTIA Security Trustmark to help businesses identify solution providers th ...
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Aug 12, 2013, 22:54 PM
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Khali Henderson
Are you a cloud laggard? That’s analyst speak for “slacker.” If you are, you may be in the minority sooner than you think. Fewer than one in five partners serving small- to medium-sized businesses will not be offering cloud services by next year. That’s according to a new study out this summer from Techaisle Inc. The research firm found the number of U.S. channel partners – VARs, MSPs and solutions providers – offering cloud services to SMBs will jump fro ...
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Aug 9, 2013, 16:25 PM
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Daniel Margolis
CompTIA hosted students from Leyden High School District 212 this week, giving them guided access to the association’s headquarters in Downers Grove, IL.
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Aug 8, 2013, 22:26 PM
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Emily Matzelle
ChannelCon 2013 started with 850-plus business owners, executives and thought-leaders – including more than 130 vendor and distributor companies taking part in the Technology Vendor Fair – and concluded with three companies coming out on top as the Best of ChannelCon award winners. StorageCraft Technology Corporation, a provider of backup, disaster recovery, system migration, data protection and cloud services solutions, took home the Best Software award. Lenovo, the world’s l ...
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Aug 5, 2013, 15:55 PM
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Julie Ritzer Ross
Twelve first-year day students in the enhanced Information & Communication Technology (ICT) program at Kingston, Jamaica-based Vector Technology Institute recently passed their CompTIA A+ exams. With CompTIA certification as well as an academic degree, the students will be ready to prove to potential employers that they have the knowledge and hands-on experience to successfully fulfill their IT job responsibilities.
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Aug 2, 2013, 21:53 PM
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Daniel Margolis
Day two of CompTIA ChannelCon 2013, the premier education and partnering event for the IT channel, which wrapped up this week at the Peabody Orlando, featured a panel discussion titled “Best Practices in Selling Telecom.” This was moderated by Khali Henderson, editor-in-chief at Channel Partners, and drew insights from panelists Ken Bisnoff, senior vice president of strategic opportunities at TelePacific Communications, Paul Cronin, senior vice president at Atrion Networking, Jeffrey ...
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Aug 2, 2013, 19:57 PM
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Brian Sherman
In an era where smartphones and tablets are the go-to device for accessing the web, many businesses have not yet tapped into the full potential of these technological resources. This year, more people will use mobile technologies to get on the Internet than traditional laptops and PCs. While many IT companies developed websites and invest in a number of online promotional tools, more often than not, they have not optimized these pages to improve user experience for mobile users. Broken forms an ...
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Aug 2, 2013, 19:42 PM
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Brian Sherman
How do experienced service providers, those who have built a solid and professional business, take their organization to the next level? After investing many years improving operations with a continual focus on improvement, it may seem like a difficult task. But for those listening closely to the needs of their clients, attaining that objective can be a lot easier. After all, very few service organizations can succeed long term without making evolutionary process improvements, helping the ...
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Aug 2, 2013, 19:24 PM
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Steven Ostrowski
Expertise and specialization will separate successful solution providers from those that struggle, according to a ChannelCon Power Panel of channel executives from four leading IT vendors. “What I see now are partners with deep expertise doing very, very well,” said Greg Davis, vice president and general manager of global commercial channels at Dell. “Make an investment in your people to build your expertise.” “The most successful partners have developed a point of ...
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